Dual medical stretcher



Dec. 21, 1954 G.V$SER DUAL MEDICAL STRETCHER Filed Dec. 16, 1949 HVVENTUR. MM

United btates Patent Q DUAL MEDICAL STRETCHER Gosse Visser, Leeuwarden, Netherlands Application December 16, 1949, Serial No. 133,237

Claims priority, application Netherlands December 18, 1948 2 Claims. (Cl. -9)

The invention relates to medical stretchers in general, and more particularly to a dual medical stretcher, in which an upper stretcher is movable into a forwardly projecting and downwardly inclined position with respect to a lower stretcher.

The invention has for of a stretcher such that a patient can be removed from or be put upon the upper stretcher in a very easy manner and that, when the upper stretcher has been placed in a downwardly inclined position, the upper and the lower stretchers are so spaced from one another, in particular at the head end, that a patient on the lower stretcher is not hindered by the downwardly inclined upper stretcher and consequently need not be removed from the lower stretcher prior to placing the upper stretcher into said position.

To this end the invention consists in this, that the upper stretcher at the head-end is supported by a pair of swingable arms, the upper ends of which are hinged to the frame of the upper stretcher and the lower ends of which are hinged to the frame of the lower stretcher, and that the upper stretcher at the foot-end is supported by a pair of swingable connecting link means, the upper links of which are hinged to the frame of the upper stretcher and the lower posts of which are rigidly secured to the frame of the lower stretcher.

Preferably, according to the invention, in the outstretched position of the connecting link means, in which position the upper stretcher is horizontally positioned direcltilydabove the lower stretcher, the link means may be 100 e Further, according to the invention, a pair of prop arms may be hingedly connected to the foot-end of the frame of the upper stretcher to serve as a means for moving the upper stretcher from the normal horizontal position into a forwardly projecting and downwardly inclined position as well as act as a support for the footend of said stretcher.

The invention will be more fully understood with reference to the accompanying drawings, illustrating an embodiment thereof by way of example and in which:

Fig. l is a side elevation of a storey-stretcher according to the invention, the upper stretcher of which occupies the normal position.

Fig. 2 is a corresponding view, in which the upper stretcher occupies a forwardly projecting and downwardly inclined position.

Referring to the drawings, a lower stretcher 1 is supported at each end thereof on a pair of semi-circular torsion springs 2B which in turn are attached to a pair of parallel beams forming a frame 7 for said stretcher. An upper stretcher 2 is similarly supported above a frame 3 on springs 23. The free ends of these springs are each kept in vertical alignment by a pair of arms 20, having one set of ends attached to said free ends and their opposite ends pivotally connected together at 2D, in the center of each spring. The frame 3 at the head end of the upper stretcher 2, having an adjustable headrest portion 2A, is hingedly connected by pins 4 to the upper ends of a pair of vertical arms 5 (only one of which is visible in the side elevational drawings), the lower end of each arm 5 being hingedly connected by a pin 6 to the frame 7 of the lower stretcher. The frame 3 at the foot-end of the stretcher 2 is hingedly connected by pins 8 to the upper ends of a pair of vertical links 9, the lower ends of which are hingedly connected to the upper ends of vertical posts its principal object, the provision 10 by pins 11. The lower ends of the posts 10 are rigidly connected to the frame 7.

Means is provided for locking the vertical link 9 to its corresponding post 19 in the outstretched vertical position as shown in Fig. 1. This may be accomplished by pivotally mounting a hooked shaped locking arm 17 at 18 adjacent the top of a post 10, said arm being free to rotate laterally of the device and engage a pin 13 projecting from a corresponding side of the link arm 9 adja cent the bottom thereof. The locking arm 17 is preferably rotated by means of a handle 19 projecting out wardly from one side thereof adjacent its end and remote from the pivot point 18.

A pair of curved prop arms 14 are hingedly connected at 15 to the foot-end of the frame 3 of the upper stretcher 2.

This dual stretcher device is usually installed in an ambulance vehicle so that a patient may be placed on the lower stretcher 1 in the conventional manner. However, before placing a patient on the upper stretcher, the attendant disengages the locking arm 17 from the pin 13 and pulls on the prop arms 14 longitudinally away from the foot-end of the device to cause the foot-end of the upper stretcher to move outwardly towards him. The movement is a rotational one, as the frame 3 of the stretcher pivots at its opposite ends on the upper ends of the arms 5 and links 9 at 4 and 8 respectively, while the lower ends of said supports rotate about the hinge points 6 and 11 respectively to a position similar to that shown in Fig. 2. The arms 14 are pivoted about their hinge points 15 until they support the foot-end of the upper stretcher at the desired height, the lower ends of said arms resting in slots in the floor (not shown) of the ambulance vehicle or extending outwardly of a rear door to contact a step or the ground.

I claim:

1. A dual medical stretcher comprising an upper stretcher and a lower stretcher, an upper and a lower frame, pairs of semi-circular torsion springs with their free ends supporting the ends of the stretchers above their frames, pairs of arms having one set of ends of each pair pivotally connected together at the center of each spring and the opposite set of ends attached to the free ends of each said spring to keep said spring ends in vertical alignment, a pair of swingable vertical arms having their upper and lower ends hingedly connected to the head ends of the upper and lower frames, a pair of vertical link members having their upper ends hingedly connected to the foot end of the upper frame, a pair of vertical post members having their lower ends fixedly connected to the foot-end of the lower frame and their upper ends pivotally connected to the lower ends of said link members at points substantially midway between said upper and lower frames, and locking means located adjacent said pivot points to lock said link and post members in a vertical position, said swingable arm and link members being adapted to displace said upper stretcher footwardly relative to said lower stretcher into a downwardly inclined position.

2. A dual medical stretcher as claimed in claim 1, including a pair of prop arms hingedly connected to the foot-end of the upper frame permitting an operator to pull said upper stretcher forwardly into said downwardly inclined position, and said prop arms supporting the foot-end of said stretcher in said inclined position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 259,512 Eldridge June 13, 1882 1,018,798 Whipple et al. Feb. 27, 1912 2,099,621 Prescott Nov. 16, 1937 2,156,850 Hafer May 2, 1939 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 47,451 Denmark June 19, 1933 307,548 Italy May 3, 1933 336,474 Germany May 3, 1921 

